Looked at a 993 targa

Following the C4 and some thinking I went to see a local-ish 96 C2 targa. It had high mileage (120K) but was cheaper than others at around £18K. We went for a drive and all seemed ok, but it was untidy and dirty inside with loose bits of trim. When we stopped smoke was pouring from the rear arches - a sign of leaking cam covers - a well know problem. I was very honest with the owner about all these points, thanked him and walked away.

Fell at the final hurdle

Thanks to my Adrian Streather book on the 993 I did some ID checking on the C4 to discover that the engine number did not match what was on the documents and the HPI check. The seller did some investigation with Porsche UK and they confirmed that the engine in the car was not the one it was built with - hmm, I don't like that for the sake of resale. It turned out that the original seized engine had been replaced with a used one, albeit by a respectable independent Porsche specialist down south. The seller did his best to get as much history but it came to a dead end with the engine having unknown mileage on it.

I was very close with this one and even had my cheque book in hand to pay the deposit, but I walked away. Oh, well carry on looking.